About Us

IMRA
IMRA
IMRA

 

Subscribe

Search


...................................................................................................................................................


Thursday, September 13, 2001
Excerpts: Attacks favor Israel. Bin Laden thanks God for bombings. Egyptian population cheers bombings of US. US bombings --Israel faulted 13 September 2001

Excerpts: Attacks favor Israel. Bin Laden thanks God for bombings. Egyptian
population cheers bombings of US. US bombings --Israel faulted 13 September
2001

+++JORDAN TIMES 13 Sept.'01:"Carnage in US tips balance of play in
Israeli-Palestinian conflict" By Christian Chaise Agence France-Presse

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The carnage in the heart of the United States has
tipped the balance of play in the Middle East conflict, putting the
Palestinians on the defensive and stirring sympathy for the occupying power,
Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will now have more leeway to fight the
uprising, predicted independent Palestinian analyst Khalil Shikaki, and "the
world will show very little tolerance" for Palestinian suicide attacks.

An Israeli official, meanwhile, asking not to be named, said Tuesday's
suicide plane bombings in New York and Washington would "have an impact on
the whole region."

"The Palestinians are now entering one of the darkest periods of their
history," an editorial in the Israeli daily Haaretz warned.

On the political and diplomatic fronts, the attacks in the United States in
which thousands are feared dead could prove a disaster for Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat.

Since coming to power in March, Sharon has tried to portray the Intifada, or
uprising against Israeli occupation, as nothing more than a "terrorist"
campaign launched by Arafat against the region's only "democracy."

The right-wing hardliner sees the world as split into two camps, with
democracies pitted against state-backed terrorist groups, a view which has
gained currency in international public opinion since the onslaught against
the United States.

"From now on, the world will be divided between those who support terror -
and there is no difference between a person who flies a plane into the World
Trade Centre and someone who blows himself up in (Tel Aviv) - and those who
stand against it," forecast Yediot Aharonot, another Israeli daily.

"The freedom of action for those who fight terror will be, in the eyes of
the Americans, almost absolute."

Television footage of Palestinians celebrating the anti-US attacks "is going
to cause tremendous damage to the Palestinian cause", feared Shikaki, who
runs a research centre in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

In the Israeli camp, far-right MPs moved swiftly on Tuesday night to urge
Sharon to make the most of the situation and teach Arafat's Palestinian
National Authority a lesson.

"The world will understand," said Zvi Hendel, one of the advocates.

Shikaki said the Israeli army's overnight offensive in the West Bank that
cost the lives of 10 Palestinians showed the Jewish state was not wasting
any time.

"They (the Israelis) are taking advantage. If this snowballs, we might see
in the next few days things heating up in a very ugly way," said Shikaki.

Taking their lead from Arafat, Palestinian officials have lined up to
condemn the horrific attacks in the United States and voice their sympathies
for the American people.

And the Palestinian leader has decided to put off a groundbreaking visit to
Syria - a country included on a US State Department list of states which
allegedly support "terrorism" - that he was to start on Wednesday.

In a damage control exercise, the governor of Nablus denied that thousands
of residents of his West Bank town had demonstrated their joy at the
devastation in the United States.

It was a protest against Israeli military operations, he insisted.

+++JORDAN TIMES 13 Sept.'01: "US searches for perpetrators, survivors"
Agencies

EXCERPTS The focus of the investigation was on Osama Bin Laden, who denied
involvement, though he "thanked Almighty God and bowed before him when he
heard this news" of the attacks, according to a Palestinian journalist. . .
. A London-based Arab journalist said followers of Bin Laden warned three
weeks ago that they would carry out a "huge and unprecedented attack" on US
interests.

{IMRA: Islamist sokesmen officially declare "suicide" bombings are
permitted.. Because suicide is prohibited in Islam,this action is surrounded
by authoritative religious ruling that bombers are not suicides. They
perform the holiest function which incidently causes their deaths. Islamists
also insist that killing women and children is forbidden. In the case of
Israel, this prohibition is overcome by declaring there are no Israeli
civilians,that everyone and everything Israeli is war-dedicated. It is
striking that while Arab civil authorities denounce the bombings in N.Y. and
Washington, Islamic religious authorities have not been heard from.}

+++JORDAN TIMES 13 Sept.'01: "Reaction to attacks in US reveals rift between
Egypt's leaders, people"

QUOTES FROM TEXT: " `Mabruk! Mabruk! (congratulations),' shouted people
huddled at shop windows where television sets showed incredible images of
airliners crashing into the twin towers"

" `I'm very sad,' Mubarak told reporters, describing the attacks as
`unimaginable' and `horrible'.' "

"The state press has published a montage showing Peres ... in a Nazi uniform
each time the Israeli minister has visited Egypt to meet Arafat and
Mubarak."

"Without rejoicing over the attacks that may have killed thousands of
civilians, an editorialist with the government daily Al Ahram wondered if
the events marked the `beginning of a war against globalisation."
========================

EXCERPTS: CAIRO - Reaction in Cairo to the terrorist attacks that hit the
United States has revealed the wide rift that separates the Egyptian
government ... and the man in the street.

"Mabruk! Mabruk! (congratulations)," shouted people huddled at shop windows
where television sets showed incredible images of airliners crashing into
the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on Tuesday.

"It's the best thing that's happened since the October war," said Gawish
Abdul Kerim, a taxi driver ... .

... "Bullseye," commented two taxi drivers as they watched the footage.

Such reactions contrasted with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's immediate
condemnation of the attacks.

"I'm very sad," Mubarak told reporters, describing the attacks as
"unimaginable" and "horrible."

"This terrorism is dangerous and we denounce terrorism. We denounce
terrorism under any circumstances," he said after chairing an emergency
cabinet meeting devoted to the attacks.

The Egyptian leader, who has survived at least 10 assassination attempts
since he became president in 1981, said "nobody could have imagined" such
attacks, adding the United States is "a friendly country" to Egypt. . . .
Mubarak has continued the historic policy of openness to the West ... which
led to the signing in 1979 of the first peace treaty between an Arab country
and Israel.

A key ally of the United States, which provides $1.3 billion a year in aid
to Egypt, Mubarak has hosted many high-level Israeli-Palestinian talks to
try to resolve a conflict which could spill over to the entire region.

At the risk of appearing as the "initiator of meetings invariably bound to
fail," he has again proposed Egypt as a venue for Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to meet, a Western diplomat
said. To be sure, the Egyptian authorities have criticised US President
George W. Bush, but mainly for his lack of initiative to end the conflict.

Such a position contrasts sharply with the battle cry of Egyptian university
students in Cairo, who have condemned both Americans and Israelis in the
same breath and burned the flags of both countries.

It also is in contrast with the government press, a pressure-release valve
and middle road between the official position and the man in the street,
which has described the Middle East conflict as "an American-Arab conflict."

The state press has published a photo-montage showing Peres... in a Nazi
uniform each time the Israeli minister has visited Egypt to meet Arafat and
Mubarak.

"Mubarak must know that the people can no longer be humiliated," a
university student in Cairo said, trying to explain his satisfaction over
the news of the attacks and the frustration of ordinary people with US
supremacy.

Without rejoicing over the attacks that may have killed thousands of
civilians, an editorialist with the government daily Al Ahram wondered if
the events marked the "beginning of a war against globalisation.

"The real reason behind the terrorism is the widening of the gap between the
north and the south, this wave of consumer madness which invades the world,
which encourages extremism of all kinds," he wrote.

{IMRA: Is this also Israel's fault?}

+++JORDAN TIMES 13 Sept.'01:" Most Jordanians in state of shock after US
attacks" By Francesca Sawalha and Saad G. Hattar

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "local press called on Washington to revise its
`provoking' foreign policy."

" `we totally differentiate between the US administration's policies,
controlled by the Zionist lobby, and ordinary American citizens' "

" `The US alone can estimate how much the power of wisdom it needs in order
to corner the arrogance of power.' "
==================

EXCERPTS: AMMAN - Most Jordanians were still in a state of shock and
disbelief on Wednesday, a day after concerted terrorist attacks hit the US'
economic and defence nerves, while the local press called on Washington to
revise its "provoking" foreign policy.

Western embassies went on high alert ...several flights in and out of Amman
were postponed, and official and cultural events were put off ... .

Meanwhile, vitriolic anti-Muslim slurs jammed chat rooms and Arabic sites,
and some Jordanians in the US admitted to feeling uneasy and fearing a
backlash of anti-Arab sentiment.

"It is `Apocalypse Now' in the US," wrote Al Aswaq in its editorial
yesterday. "US institutions should come to the conclusion that societies
will always be threatened by killings and destruction as long as power comes
first, at the expense of dialogue."

Al Aswaq went on to say that "because the US people lived on Tuesday one of
many days lived by the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli aggressors,
we think that this will prompt US policy-makers to adopt more humane
policies, less biased in favour of aggressors and occupiers."

Al Arab Al Yawm's Taher Adwan warned that the Zionist movement will seek to
point the finger against Arabs and Muslims, and praised all Palestinian
factions, from Islamic Jihad, to Hamas to the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine for moving swiftly to deny any involvement in the
horrific attacks.

"As Arabs and Palestinians, we totally differentiate between the US
administration's policies, controlled by the Zionist lobby, and ordinary
American citizens," Adwan said. "The US is an open country with millions of
Arabs and billions of Arab dollars in its banks," he added.

Columnist Jamil Nimri described Tuesday's footage from Manhattan and
Washington as "science fiction beyond imagination." ................. "The
blows dealt to the symbols of US military and economic might exposed the
fragility of power when it grows to such an extent and in such a huge
country that it becomes impossible to control the prospects of terrorist
acts by oppressed parties."

"The US alone can estimate how much of the power of wisdom it needs in order
to corner the arrogance of power."

Mohammad Kawash of Al Arab Al Yawm criticised the "hasty and unfounded"
accusations against Arabs or Muslims.

Al Arab Al Yawm's Mohammad Subeihi expected the attacks to usher in a new
phase in US foreign and security policies, while Al Ra'i's Fahed Fanek said
the carnage exposed the failure of American security and law

+++JORDAN TIMES 12 Sept.'01:King: US attacks add urgency to Mideast
solution" By Francesca Sawalha SUBJECT: King Abdullah on US bombings.

QUOTES FROM TEXT: "King Abdullah on Wednesday said...terrorist attacks in
the US added urgency to the need to find a just, comprehensive and lasting
solution to the Palestinian cause."

" `The vacuum is giving extremists the upper hand and providing them
with opportunities to try and carry out operations like those which
occured yesterday.'"

"Referring to the celebrations which took place in ... the West Bank and
Gaza... King Adullah stated that the behaviour of a small group of
individuals should not be generalized to all Palestinians and Arabs."

EXCERPTS: AMMAN - His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday said... terrorist
attacks in the US added urgency to the need to find a just, comprehensive
and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause.

...King Abdullah expressed sorrow and grief for the loss of innocent lives
and reiterated the condolences of the Jordanian people and government to
America and all Americans.

"If the United States had resolved the problems in the Middle East, notably
the Israeli-Palestinian question, I seriously doubt that they would have
taken place," ... . . .

Tuesday's terror attacks were "a call for all of us in the international
community to ensure a stop to the violence and bring the parties back to the
negotiations table," ... ..

"The vacuum is giving extremists the upper hand and providing them with
opportunities to try and carry out operations like those which occurred
yesterday," he said. . . . The King said Jordanian security and law
enforcement agencies had been "working closely" with the United States for
several years to fight terrorism.

Terrorism is not a "new phenomenon of the week ... I am surprised that
something similar had not happened earlier," he said.

Referring to the celebrations which took place in ... the West Bank and
Gaza... King Abdullah stated that the behaviour of a small group of
individuals should not be generalised to all Palestinians and Arabs.

{IMRA: Questionable. In a revent public opinion of Palestinians, by
Palestinians, 81 of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza favor suicide
bombings. Article in the same issue of the Jordan Times reports approval of
US bombings by the Egyptian "street" and expressed concern and condolences
by Mubarak. What is the situation in Jordan?}

"We were all shocked and saddened by the devastating incident," he said.

The King sent a cable of condolences to Bush on Tuesday, expressing also the
sorrow and grief of the Jordanian government and people.

Yesterday, the King also convened and chaired a meeting of senior ministers
to review the spate of terror attacks.

Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb, Interior Minister Awad Khleifat, Foreign
Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib and Information Minister Saleh Qallab were
present at the meeting, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, said.

Speaking at the meeting, the King categorically condemned the acts of
violence that resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians. On behalf of the
Jordanian people, government, and Throne, he reiterated his condolences to
the American government, people, and the bereaved families of the victims.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA

Search For An Article

....................................................................................................

Contact Us

POB 982 Kfar Sava
Tel 972-9-7604719
Fax 972-3-7255730
email:imra@netvision.net.il IMRA is now also on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IMRA_UPDATES

image004.jpg (8687 bytes)